Citizens advice advising tenants to do repairs

[Crazyhousewife]

I mean seriously is this what it’s come to. Landlords pushing for double the rent due to the housing market and now tenants need to do the repairs themselves aswell. Why don’t I just get the details for his bills and pay them too. I’ve had nothing but hassle with my landlord who has had to pay my deposit back for not registering it and also the constant harassment. Citizens advice have advised I do the repairs myself and also pay my landlord extra rent so that it’s in constant credit. I understand keeping it in credit always but he does no repairs, I’ve had faulty electrics, my oven doesn’t work and no room or sockets for a microwave, doors are hanging off the frames, some have huge gaps along the bottoms too. The list is endless. I also have sheep in the garden as he took the fence down and won’t put one back up.

Is moving elsewhere an option?

Is the advice to pay extra rent and be in credit because there is a concern that you might get slightly in arrears and face eviction?

Why did they advise you to do repairs? Do they say you will be entitled to claim the costs back from landlord?

Obviously not ideal, but if the options are either
"a": stay and risk dying in an unsafe home because the landlord won't carry out the repairs or
"b": pay for the repairs, be safe and legally claim costs back, I know which I'd choose.
Presuming you are not able to do the obvious and best option "c": move.

I’ve been looking at moving elsewhere and it was to do the repairs as the landlord won’t do them and is selling the house. Which I feel is pointless doing the repairs when I’m paying rent each month. It’s been a week late with universal credit so I spoke about correcting that situation but I don’t feel I should be paying for the repairs on the property because he won’t do them. He has been saying he will do these repairs before I moved in but just uses it as excuse to come round the house unannounced or in the property while I’m out. The council say he is willing to do the repairs but he’s never arranged anything to do them just asked if I can get family to do them.

If I was in your position I would contact Shelter. They're housing specialists. I would also contact the council to see if they can take any enforcement action against the landlord.

Big gaps under the doors are a common thing. Hanging off hinges takes minutes to rescrew in.
To stop him walking in whenever you can change the locks, very easy to swap out the barrel and put it back when you move.

Unless it’s an emergency he has to give you warning which I would insist on and email him reminding him this.

I have found citizen a pile of wank any time I have used it in the past. They gave me similar advice with regards to sorting out repairs myself 20 years ago 😂 Now anything relating to housing I go to Shelter. You can also keep going back to the council and try and keep communication with him in writing so you can show them.

As for the deposit shame you got it back already. You could have taken legal action and got more back.

Relatives unless qualified cannot rewire the place not that I would anyway considering this would add value to his property.

He's not allowed to be coming into the property unannounced or while you're out.

Definitely contact Shelter for advice on this.

Sheep in the garden! That sounds like heaven. And the landlord doesn't charge any extra for them?

trust me you don’t want to clean up the mess they leave in the garden. It’s not nice especially since I don’t have pets for this reason. They also get stuck because they are getting over the wire fence bit that the farmer has in place that’s normally in front of everyone’s gates but because I have no gates they jump over it and have been caught and injured.

no the gaps that are normal I understand but these have tried to be cut down you can see as there’s like half of it missing along the bottom on one side and then it’s there on the other side. Also I got longer screws to screw it in but it’s not gripping it just comes loose after I shut the door. It needs skimming down and possibly wood adding so it has something to grip on. Something I can’t do with it not being my property. It’s little things like this , but like the plug in the bathroom being stuck so you can’t use the sink, tried everything to unstick it, the bit on the sink missing so it leaks straight into the cupboard when you empty the washing up bowl (got one with a plug and still leaks), doors broken and one at the the side has screws screwed in from the inside so that you cannot use it. Windows have bits of panelling missing and the council made a bigger list but because a lot of it is minor, like the oven not working. It’s just left. The only problem is I can’t remove the oven without permission and I’ve got no way of cooking food due to it being a small kitchen. One small side with room for a kettle and toaster only, 3 cupboards. Couldn’t even fit a slow cooker on the side either.

It depends who you talk to at Citizens Advice, most (should) refer to Shelter's info anyway, so it should still be correct advice.

These are the steps to follow. You can pay for it yourself but there are specific things you must do first in order to ensure you can get the money back from the landlord.
england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/repairs/what_to_do_if_your_private_landlord_wont_do_repairs

Also, every single private tenancy agreement I've ever come across requires rent to be paid in advance, not in arrears, so if yours is standard but you're paying in arrears, the advice to catch up is correct.

You run the risk of eviction if you have 2 months of rent arrears, so if 1 month of arrears is your default, you're putting yourself in a vulnerable position if you're late with your rent at any point.
england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/eviction/eviction_after_a_section_8_notice

You have an issue with YOUR landlord. Not all landlords. I don't know anyone who has 'doubled the rent'. In fact I haven't raised the rent for 8 years for one tenant because he has become increasingly disabled, and another is still only paying two thirds of her rent since the first lockdown. And I do repairs promptly.
Please don't tar all of us with the one brush.

He is selling the house. He isnt going to bother. You would be better moving if you can.

If you are in UK

Ll are supposed to provide electrical safety check certificates every 5 years from a qualified electrician for the property
Ll are supposed to provide gas safety check certificate every year from a qualified gas Engineer for the property

Did the LL provide the oven when you moved in ?
If so, they should send an Engineer to check it & if necessary replace it - white goods.

How many properties do you own ?? !!!

He didn’t provide any certificates and yes oven was there when I moved in. It was in a shocking state so I paid for it to be cleaned but it doesn’t heat up at all. It takes like 45 minutes to cook a pizza and it was still frozen in many places. The council have left him to it and are just pushing him to issue the section 21 but my tenancy agreement doesn’t end until October. He’s also not getting any viewings for the property either, one person came and that was it.

He can't issue you with a valid s21 if he doesn't have an electrical certificate I don't think

Citizens Advice don't make the rules they just tell you what they are and yes the rules suck but that's something you take up with your local MP. People like to bitch and moan about them when they don't like the news 🙄

www.gov.uk
Search for renting a property
Lots of info for tenants

There are no rules saying you should do up & repair your landlords house you loon. You pay rent to not have to do those things.

Eh. You should be grateful that your tenants are paying off your mortgage/pension!

Citizens advice clearly don’t know half of the rules because shelter couldn’t believe they were advising to do the repairs as it’s down to the landlord. The reality is I’m paying rent and my landlord is doing nothing but want me to do the repairs also and pay him the 600.00 for the electrics which I’m not doing as he never got it done when I moved in and he is the one that had removed the trip switches. I get he is in debt but I can’t pay that off for him, I’m just paying to rent a house. One that I would expect to be safe, secure and have some privacy from the man not having him sitting there on a night watching the house for 40 minutes or calling and texting me and getting others to call me. It’s been never ending for 3 months and I’ve never had a landlord go on like this.

Please give feedback to the citizens advice you contacted. Don't tar all of them with the same brush!

I think Citizens Advice has become somewhat unreliable in a number of areas since around 2019-2020. The area I know about is PIP and sadly I would hesitate to signpost claimants to its website tbh.

I can imagine that Shelter are more up to date.

Shelter are experts on housing.
Citizens Advice covers anything and everything and does (or should) signpost to other websites and organisations including Shelter for housing.
Also, the Citizens Advice public website is pretty basic - it can still be helpful in many cases, but it doesn't always have the detail you need. However, if you contacted them you would get an adviser who would have access to adviser-only resources as well as the knowledge and experience of colleagues; supervisors and specialists.
It's also worth pointing out that offices are independent of each other; they're all part of the national network but they're members and not branches, if that makes sense. Some are better than others.